Latest Diet Trend: Eat Whatever You Want, Fast Two Days Per Week

A new diet has taken Britain by storm and it could prove popular in the U.S. Based on advice from a trendy new book, people are eating whatever they want and then fasting.

According to The New York Times, the new diet trendsetter is The Fast Diet. It has become known as the 5:2 diet because followers can eat and drink whatever they want for five days as long as they fast for two. While this might sound a lot like notoriously dangerous and unsuccessful crash diets, during which a person eats next to nothing following a binge, this fasting does include some eating.

According to the diet plan, fasting days include 250 to 300 calories each. Food during a fasting day might be two eggs and one slice of ham and then steamed fish and veggies for dinner.

The claim is that while fasting in between breakfast and dinner two days per week, the body "begins to turn off the fat-storing mechanisms and turn on fat-burning systems." Co-author Dr. Michael Mosley put himself through the diet for a popular BBC documentary called, "Eat, Fast, and Live Longer." He fasted on and off throughout the film and interviewed scientific researchers about the effects of his new diet.

He discovered that the benefits of his experiment were, "weight loss, a lower risk of cancer and heart disease, and increased energy." He eventually settled on the 5:2 model as a realistic option that could integrate fasting into everyday life.

The book, co-written by food writer Mimi Spencer, who lost 20 pounds in four months on the diet (Dr. Mosley lost 20 pounds in nine weeks), contains recipes and tips for what to eat during fasting days. It also reports Dr. Mosley's scientific findings. While people in Britain have responded extremely well to the diet, especially men, Britain's National Health Service came out with a warning about the new regimen: "Despite its increasing popularity, there is a great deal of uncertainty about I.F. (intermittent fasting) with significant gaps in the evidence."

The BBC documentary will air on PBS in the spring, and The Fast Diet has just arrived for purchase stateside. That means Britain's latest diet trend could be the next big fad in the U.S.

Do you think the 5:2 diet will become popular in America? Would you try it?